Poet: Paul Verlaine

Chanson d’automne (Autumn Song) by Paul Verlaine

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When a sighing begins
In the violins
Of the autumn-song,

My heart is drowned
In the slow sound
Languorous and long

Pale as with pain,
Breath fails me when
The hours tolls deep.
My thoughts recover
The days that are over
And I weep.

And I go
Where the winds know,
Broken and brief,
To and fro,
As the winds blow
A dead leaf.

(trans. by Arthur Symons, 1902)

For alternate translations and analysis of the original, see textetc.com.

British filmmaker Rachel Laine shot this on a Canaon 600D and edited in Fainl Cut Pro and Logic. It uses music by Carillion and Nic S.’s reading from Pizzicati of Hosanna.